Raiders fullback Alec Ingold on a quest to be the best

MADISON, Wisconsin

With no safety net to protect Alec Ingold, the Raiders’ second-year fullback, Brian Bott asked him if he needed assistance. Bott wanted to make sure Ingold was safe from a potentially dangerous fall if he didn’t stick the landing.

Ingold, his face blush from nearly 30 minutes of nonstop work at Sports AdvantEdge gym, was having none of it. As he sized up the 4½ feet of stacked boxes in front of him, he grunted something along the lines of “get lost” to Bott, the personal trainer he’s enlisted to help make sure his second NFL season is even better than his first.

Failure is not an option.

“No shortcuts,” Ingold said earlier as he dragged himself into the gym. It was cold, wet and windy outside, your typical early March morning in Wisconsin. And it wasn’t much warmer or inviting in Bott’s workout facility. The whole place reeks of hard work.

What it lacks in fanciness, though, it more than makes up for in practicality and efficiency. A turf area provides sufficient space for short sprints and agility drills. Alongside it is a weight area consisting of all the equipment needed to build and maintain the sort of armored body necessary to function at the highest level of professional football.

The pictures hanging on the wall of past and present Bott trainees — Houston Texans star J.J. Watt, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson and former Cleveland Browns star left tackle Joe Thomas among them — are proof that his means and methods work.

Ingold, who grew up 137 miles away in Green Bay and went to college at the University of Wisconsin, has the resources to go to any gym he wants. But he chooses AdvantEdge.

“Everything I need is right here,” he said.

He wants to be the best fullback in the NFL. The journey to get there starts here most mornings at the crack of dawn.

Riding shotgun is Bott, the former strength and conditioning coach at the University of Wisconsin. The road map he’s drawn up involves a five-day-a-week workout regimen designed to enhance Ingold’s strength, speed, change of direction ability and quickness. Supplementing that is a strict diet inspired by the eating program used by The Rock in preparation for his role as Hercules.

A typical workout runs 90 minutes. The exercises and drills are divided into six or seven individual circuits, with each rep followed by a short recovery period.

“Catch your breath and go onto the next set,” Ingold said.

The fast-paced series of explosive reps and rest periods mimic the start-and-stop nature of football. The format serves two purposes: As Ingold does his body work, he is also getting in his conditioning.

The emphasis on this day is lower-body strength, which is why Ingold was in a full sitting position trying to muster enough power and explosion to scale all those boxes in front of him.

The focus the following day will be on change of direction, a vital component for a ball carrier like Ingold. Already a big, tough, physical runner able to bully his way in short-yardage situations, the former high school quarterback can be even more effective if he can make more people miss.

It’ll be on to a linear speed the next day, followed by another day devoted to change of direction. Ingold supplements his training days with six meals and 30 grams of whey protein and berries right before bed. He cuts back to four meals on nontraining days, plus the bedtime whey protein and berries snack.

Ingold began splitting time between Wisconsin and Las Vegas after recently closing on a new house in Southern Nevada. The coronavirus obviously threw a monkey wrench into things. But Ingold and a handful of his Raiders teammates found a Las Vegas gym that doubles as a therapy center. That means it can remain open during the shutdown as an essential business.

“We got pretty lucky,” Ingold said.

Becoming a role model

His work ethic and discipline were instilled in him by his parents, Pat and Chris, while growing up in the shadow of Green Bay’s storied Lambeau Field.

It’s a family pairing for which divine intervention played a major role.

Alec was put up for adoption shortly after his biological mother learned she was pregnant. His maternal grandfather died when his mother was young, and she understood the difficulties raising a child as a single parent. She wanted better for her soon-to-be-born son. Upon relocating to Green Bay, she enlisted the help of an agency to find a stable family environment for him.

Pat and Chris Ingold were on a waiting list for adoption when they were put in touch with Alec’s biological mother. Within a short time of their first meeting, a strong bond was established.

“She was like, you are it. This is the family I want him to be with,” Alec’s adoptive mother, Chris, remembers. “So it was definitely out of love.”

For as long as Ingold can remember, his parents have been upfront and honest about his adoption. In fact, they encouraged him to meet his biological mother, who they remained connected to over the years, when he was in the third grade.

Only vague memories remain from the one-time meeting. But Ingold has no lingering desire to reconnect.

“For me, my mom is my mom and my dad is my dad and the family that raised me is my family,” Ingold said. “I am so comfortable with my family and my situation. I’m very, very, fortunate to be in that situation.”

Not that Ingold didn’t experience moments of uncertainty and questions, including how much different he, as the child of biracial maternal parents, looked from his Irish-American adoptive parents and younger sister, Sydnie. Let alone that he was towering over his 5-foot-4-inch mother and 5-6 father by the time he reached fifth grade.

“I mean, there’s night’s where you go to sleep and you can get all caught up in like, no one wanted me, or I’m not blood-related to anyone that I know,” Ingold said. “And there’s that loss of like, you know, you see your friends and their parents and they follow in their footsteps. So it’s different because you’re with people that love you more than anyone or anything else. But at the same time, it’s like, you can’t see that reflection in the mirror. You can’t visually see that connection 100 percent. So it’s definitely a struggle to kind of just accept you for who you are, in your own skin.”

As his career blossoms, Ingold hopes to use his NFL platform to be a role model for kids growing up in similar circumstances. “The older you get, the more you understand the whole situation,” Ingold said. “It’s something where in the future, I want to get involved in helping other kids deal with that.”

Becoming a man

The NFL seemed an unlikely scenario three years ago when Ingold got benched heading into his junior year at Wisconsin. It was a humbling experience for a player who led the Badgers in touchdowns as a true freshman and split fullback duties as a sophomore, only to barely play as a junior.

It left a bitter taste. But the more Ingold looked for other people to blame for the demotion, the more he realized he had only himself to blame.

“I wasn’t being accountable,” said Ingold, “It was at a point in my life where I had to look in the mirror and be like, ‘Who am I going to be?’ Like, ‘What am I going to stand for?’ ”

With his senior year rapidly approaching and needing to commit himself like never before, Ingold pulled out a piece of paper and wrote down three questions:

Who am I?

Who do I want to be?

How am I going to get there?

He wanted his starting job back, first and foremost. But he also wanted to put himself on the NFL radar and get invited to the Senior Bowl and NFL scouting combine.

And he wanted to get drafted.

“So, I wrote down on a big sheet of paper every single thing I was going to do, from that summer to fall camp all the way through my senior year,” Ingold said. “I wrote down all my goals. I put it on my wall where I’d see it every day.”

The change was apparent.

“That’s really when I knew that he grew up,” said his father. “He was really faced with some adversity, and he chose to fight. We’re extremely proud of the decision he made and the effort he put forth, day in and day out.”

Ingold eventually achieved all of but one of his objectives. In spite of winning back his starting job and opening the eyes of the NFL and performing well at the Senior Bowl, where he worked under Jon Gruden and the Raiders coaching staff, and making the most of his scouting combine experience, last April’s draft came and went without his name being called.

“One of the worst days of my life,” he said. “You do everything right for such a long period of time, you’re healthy, you’re lucky, people are telling you you’re the best fullback. Then you don’t get drafted and it’s like — I mean hindsight is 20/20 because absolutely the best thing that could have happened was me going to the Raiders — but it definitely didn’t feel that way on draft day.”

Once again Ingold looked himself in the mirror and asked himself: Was the goal to get drafted? Or was the goal to be an NFL player?

“And that was what helped me realize that, like, today wasn’t really the goal,” Ingold said thinking back to draft day. “The goal is September 1st and being on the active roster and earning a starting job. That’s the goal. So it’s almost like my vision grew. I was able to see who I really wanted to be. … I was like, OK, so this is what I thought we were going after, but actually it’s about something much bigger.”

Living a dream

He not only made the Raiders, who scooped him up as a free agent, he became a key part of their short-yardage packages and a dependable blocker. Along the way, he got to return to Green Bay to play at Lambeau Field, the sacred football ground he worshipped as a kid.

Ingold had been on the field twice before — once at his cousin’s wedding reception when he was in middle school and the other time as a star player at nearby Bay Port High School.

His family lost track of him during the wedding reception, only to finally find him alone in a dark room overlooking the field. As his dad put an arm around him, Alec said, “Wouldn’t it be cool if I played here one day?”

Needless to say, it was a special moment when Alec took the field with the Raiders last October. In fact, Ingold had to take a second or two to collect himself and refocus on the task at hand.

His father can relate.

“There aren’t many moments in life where you’re standing up and you have to put your hands on your knees and just say wow,” Pat Ingold said. “It was just unbelievable.”

Ingold has his sights set on so much more, for himself and the Raiders as they begin their new life in Las Vegas. As a member of a deep rookie class that includes Josh Jacobs, Clelin Ferrell, Hunter Renfrow, Maxx Crosby and Trayvon Mullen, the younger generation of Raiders want to put their stamp on the storied franchise.

Bott wants to help him get there. In some ways Bott didn’t just find a willing pupil in Ingold but also a kindred spirit. Right down to their taste in music, which some days includes the hard-driving rock that Bott grew up with back in the day.

“You can’t listen to rap all the time,” Ingold said, smiling.

Seconds after dismissing Bott’s offer to spot him, the 6-1, 240-pound Ingold explodes into the air from a full seated position and, with legs slightly tucked, clears the padded boxes to easily stick the landing. As he confidently jumped back to the ground, smiling proudly at establishing a personal-best mark, Bott was waiting with a high-five.

Rep by rep, jump by jump, Ingold is closing in on his goals.

Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal.com. Follow @VinnyBonsignore onTwitter.